Slow Phaser
Nicole Atkins (Thirty Tigers/Oh’Mercy!)
There are certain singers who are a delight to encounter no matter what they’re doing with their voices. Adele, for instance, could have gotten over on the potency of her vocals alone. New Jersey’s own Nicole Atkins is a singer like that. Her voice is so arresting that it has sometimes made the other elements of her recordings feel superficial by comparison. Remember when Michael Jordan was on the Washington Wizards, and none of the other players on the team could make a basket because they were all watching him play? That’s what some of Atkins’ early projects were like.
Over time, Atkins, who has moved back to the Shore after the obligatory relocation to Brooklyn, has learned to get that beast under control. As she has, her songwriting has grown more adventurous: "Mondo Amore," her 2011 release, was an impressive exercise in ’60s-inspired heavy psych-rock. Because she’s such a powerful singer — her thunderous voice manages to simultaneously echo Chrissie Hynde and Roy Orbison — she’s able to throw all kinds of elements into her arrangements that would flatten a less talented vocalist. "Slow Phaser," her latest set, adds disco beats and prog-rock synthesizers to the psychedelia and vintage film score music that have long been the bedrock of her sound. It should be a mess. Remarkably, it all holds together, and testifies to the singer-songwriter’s ambition, flexibility, commitment to editorial control and determination to follow her muse wherever it leads her.
It’s unlikely a major label would have bankrolled a project as eclectic as "Slow Phaser." Instead, Atkins has made it to her own idiosyncratic specifications and released it through her own independent label. That means she won’t have the backing she did when she put out the cinematic "Neptune City" on Columbia in 2007, but she has kept some of her old friends: She recorded "Phaser" with Tore Johansson, the "Neptune" producer. Shrewdly, he has not steered Atkins back in the direction of her major label work — instead, he’s supported her mid-’70s visions with analog synth breaks reminiscent of Roxy Music or Genesis ("What Do You Know") and mirror-ball drumbeats ("Girl You Look Amazing"). And with "Red Ropes" — a co-write with Nick Cave sideman Jim Sclavunos — they demonstrate that they can still craft an epic power-ballad that sounds as if it was pinched from a film-noir soundtrack.
For the first time, Atkins works consequential backing vocals into her arrangements. There’s a gang-shouted verse on "It’s Only Chemistry," and an exercise in call-and-response with a gruff baritone on the brief "Sin Song"; these excursions offset and augment Atkins’ own singing. She’s also doing more with her voice than she ever has, even if much of it is less showy than it used to be. "Cool People" is a purr; "The Worst Hangover" ends with an intensely creepy slowdown.
It’s hard to know how much of an audience there is for a pop-prog-disco hybrid in 2014, but to her credit, Atkins doesn’t care; a true Jersey original, she’s letting her imagination be her guide.
— Tris McCall

Between WorldsAvi Avital, mandolin (Deustche Grammophon)

As a mandolin virtuoso, Avi Avital has the ability — and the need — to forge his own repertoire. On "Between Worlds," a follow up to his Bach recording, he takes on folk music from around the globe, drawing on Hungarian, Brazilian, Bulgarian, Spanish, Klezmer and tango traditions, among others. Avital’s abilities are never in question, and he has chosen well-suited collaborators with whom he has a palpable rapport: accordionist Richard Galliano, clarinetist Giora Feidman, versatile percussionist Itamar Doari and harpist Catrin Finch. In faster-paced dance music, the arrangements are especially engaging. Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances stand out, including the playfully halting sash dance, the hearty polka and the whirlwind of the impeccably played "fast dance." The compact and intricate "Sachidao" by Georgian composer Sulkhan Tsintsadze builds beguilingly on a bright modal melody, and Bloch’s Nigun receives a soulful, impressive performance. When the mandolin is called on to take the part of a sustained voice, as in Villa-Lobos’ "Aria," the tremulous, fast-vibrating sound the instrument produces feels less natural, but still intriguing.
— Ronni Reich

No Way There From HereLaura Cantrell (Thrift Shop)

Time has smiled on "Not the Tremblin’ Kind," Laura Cantrell’s plaintive, stripped-down 2000 debut. Instantly beloved by country music fans in Brooklyn and North Jersey, the set has only grown in stature in the years since its release. Cantrell, however, has never seemed terribly anxious to follow it up. The former WFMU deejay hasn’t put out a set of mostly-originals since the too-slick "Humming by the Flowered Vine" a decade ago — but the honeyed cup of tea that is "No Way There From Here" returns her to the immediacy and charm of "Tremblin.’ " The singer, who possesses the perfect voice for country storytelling — fragile, knowing, unadorned — alternates between gorgeous heartbreak ballads such as "When It Comes to You" and upbeat, though no less lovelorn, barn dances like "Driving Down Your Street." Her observations on male-female relationships are as wry and wise as they’ve ever been, but there’s more fight in her this time around, and the album benefits from her quiet defiance. "Barely Said a Thing," in which she explores the emotional terrain of a brief sexual encounter, and "Washday Blues," a dignified lament over a broken relationship, both reinforce her opening argument: "All the Girls Are Complicated."

— Tris McCall

Heart on Fire
Larry Stevens Band (Larry Stevens)

The genial Larry Stevens isn’t the sort of musician who slow-plays his listeners. Instead, he gives everything he’s got to give, right up front: traditional Jersey guitar rock, romantic and passionate, concerned about the economy but not so fixated on politics that he’s got no time to spare for love. While he doesn’t possess the world’s greatest vocal command, he compensates with general gusto. This is the sort of approach associated with the Shore, and he’s no stranger to the Monmouth County clubs, though he also has been a near-regular at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood for several years (he’ll be back there April 19 in support of the Little River Band). "Heart on Fire," the title track to his latest EP, is enthusiastically sung and tightly played in the style of Willie Nile or Southside Johnny; even if there’s nothing particularly novel about it, it’s certainly fun. Stevens tacked an acoustic version of the song onto the EP, and given that his performance remains over-the-top, that probably wasn’t such a good idea. A faithful cover of Firefall’s "You Are the Woman" is welcome, however, as are the pair of mildly politicized songs that demonstrate that Stevens’ blue-collar heart is in the right place.
—Tris McCall